Positive Tips #10: Don’t Feel Entitled. Take Action Instead

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
– Mark Twain

How many times have you gone through your life and thought that you really deserved something? I competed so hard and worked so hard, I deserved that prize? I’ve hit a rough patch of life, the world should balance out and give me something in return. I went to college and paid a lot for my tuition, I deserve a high-paying job.

Look at each of those items and maybe some of the things in your life and ask yourself why do you exactly deserve those items? With each of these items, does thinking about it harbor feelings of positivity or happiness? I would think not, you probably would have feelings of anger, disappointment, and resentment.

Getting rid of the feeling that we’re entitled to certain things may be one of the hardest things to do. I know that in my life, I have plenty of things that I still cling onto and I still think, hey I need someone to throw me a bone here. But the truth is, what is the real purpose of holding onto these things and expecting something to just happen because we’re entitled to it? How many hours, days, weeks could potentially go by that we continually get more and more disappointed?

What if we could turn around our thoughts and say, hey I’m in a tough spot right now but you know what, I’m going to use that as motivation to get myself out of it. What if instead of demanding and expecting something, we go out and grab it ourselves. What if we could have more positive feelings can be obtained and we can leave behind the negative feelings?

One of the biggest things I’ll point out here is our negativity towards our government and how things are going. I understand that everyone is frustrated because the economy is not in the best shape. Unemployment is at a very high percentage. There are a number issues from foreign policy to the environment that have people on edge and angry because of unfulfilled promises. How many times have you gone into the comments of an article and just see people shooting off that it’s all the democrats fault? Or how about the Republicans? Maybe it was Bush, maybe Obama. It’s has just kind of been sad to see so many people upset and pointing fingers. My first question though to everyone is, did you go out and vote? More than half of this country doesn’t even vote when it comes to elections. If you didn’t vote, sorry don’t feel entitled, you didn’t even stand up to make a decision on who is going to run the country. Have you gone and been an advocate for your causes? Why not stand up, voice your cause, be an advocate and make a difference? How is responding in blogs and articles behind a computer screen going to turn the world positive?

I took a big step in my own life with this blog and with the actions I take in life. I decided that I was tired of expecting certain things out of my job, out of my life, out of my friends. Instead, I decided you know what, if I want it to happen, I need to make it happen. I need to step up and take the action and if it ends up not working, well maybe it wasn’t meant to be. But, there’s no excuse to blame the world for everything. Instead thank the world for the lessons its taught and make yourself better.

Life is all about forging YOUR own path and making things happen. It’s about going after your big dreams and it’s about discovering and pursuing your passions. Why feel like your entitled to something? It’s faster to stop complaining about it and make a difference instead.